PROGRAM EVENTS

The Program Managers in the Community Service Center handle individual program responsibilities while planning events and initiatives to ensure we remain connected with the greater Boston University Community. This year, many of our program managers undertook projects to promote things they are passionate about.

CSC ABSENTEE VOTER DRIVE

In the week before the 2018 midterm elections, CSC Program Managers tabled in the GSU Link, providing people with laptops to register for their absentee ballots and stamps to mail them in. Program Manager Catrin Trudgill spearheaded the initiative with the help of a Boston University partnership with TurboVote. After a week of tabling, we were able to register over 200 studnets for their absentee ballots.

"I organized this event as I believe community engagement and civic participation go hand in hand and voting for politicians and policies that will help marginalized communities is essential to our work at the CSC," said Cat. "Many students from BU are from out-of-state and as youth voting rates are low particularly in midterm elections, I wanted to do my part in engaging my fellow students."

HOT TOPIC AND HOT COCOA: PETEY GREENE

Petey Greene is a community partner of Empowerment League. Petey Greene works to ensure incarcerated persons have access to high quality education while they are incarcerated by providing volunteer tutors. Empowerment League Program Manager Olivia Rosenburg helped coordinate this panel for students volunteering with Petey Greene to complete their training. The panel itself focused on re-entry into prison featuring the following speakers: Professor Gaston from the Criminal Justice Department at Northeastern, John Lara from Haley House who is a graduate of their Transitional Employee Program, Yuisa Gonzalez who is a writer, mother and formerly incarcerated woman.

"I thought that students would be most interested in talking about re-entry because its not a topic that comes up in daily conversation often and I wanted to create a space where students could have an open dialogue and better understand what it means to have to adjust to normal life after spending time being incarcerated," said Olivia. Students could ask questions to further their understandings of incarceration and the lives of formerly incarcerated of individuals, combating any stereotypical assumptions they might have had. "I am proud of this event because I was able to create this space for BU students a volunteers to learn something new, " said Olivia. "We created a safe and emotionally vulnerable space and this allowed a large takeaway."